


On the First day of Christmas...

by oakfarmer



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Christmas, Everlark Season of Hope 2019, F/M, Post-Mockingjay, Pre-Epilogue Mockingjay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-20
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21868777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oakfarmer/pseuds/oakfarmer
Summary: District 7's tradition of 'Christmas' has spread to the post war District 12.Peeta tries to help Katniss embrace these new strange customs.Hoping a few of them may bring his true love some cheer during the winter season.
Relationships: Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Comments: 16
Kudos: 59
Collections: The Hunger Games 2019 Season of Hope Holiday Gift Exchange





	On the First day of Christmas...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Xerxia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xerxia/gifts).



_♪ On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...._

This is Johanna’s fault. Katniss stares at the colorful monstrosity her neighbors have placed in the middle of the square.

Jo’s interview about District 7’s seasonal traditions had set off the trend. Every month this year, a propo has highlighted one of the Districts. In October, District 9’s All Hallows feast was a big hit across the country. November featured 12’s annual Harvest festival.

For the most part, her home district has ignored each special’s repeated urgings to ‘enjoy the holidays’, ‘embrace new traditions’. That is until they showcased the lumber district’s celebration of ‘Christmas’.

Decorated trees and gift exchanges. Lights and cheer. A rather creepy folk tale of a large man sneaking into your house to deliver a present, but only if you’re ‘nice’. All narrated by Johanna’s enthusiastic wit and characteristic snark.

Something about the darkest days of winter being filled with laughter and signs of life seemed to resonate with the survivors of 12. They’ve embraced the new holiday with an exuberance even the Harvest Festival doesn’t receive.

She understands what Plutarch is trying to do. The propaganda king continuing to fulfill his role for Panem’s new government. They want a united country, one culture. No longer competing sectors forced in death battles for entertainment.

The tree her hometown dragged out of the forest might disagree. While other trees drop their leaves and play dead over the long winter, the evergreen looks vibrant and alive. The perfect target to be chopped down and put on display. And what’s it to Panem? Just another dead evergreen. Another ------

“Sweetness for my Sweetheart!” Peeta’s cheerful face interrupts her brooding session. She’s tucked herself to the side of the busy bustling square. Full of chatter and music around the newly lighted tree. They had attempted a few of the holiday songs but gave up on the lyrics somewhere around 5 golden rings. The band is playing more familiar tunes now.

He holds out a steaming mug for her. “Delly say’s it’s called hot chocolate. It smells amazing!”

Katniss accepts the cup, trying to hold a neutral face. “Thank you.” Peeta can read her too easily to miss that something he said didn’t sit right.

He puzzles at her for a moment before taking a slow sip of the warm drink. “Oh, we’ve… we’ve had this. Umm, on the train? Real or not real?”

“Real.” She answers before taking a slow sip of her own.

“Ug, I’m sorry. I didn’t remember. The last thing I want to bring up today are _those_ memories.” Peeta reaches to take back her mug.

“No, no its good….it was good. The memory, it’s a good one. You told me to dip bread in it. Here, taste it again.” She lifts her hot chocolate to his lips for him to take a taste.

His eyes don’t leave her face as he drinks from her cup. “Hmm…bread would be great in this. Bread makes everything better. I should run over to the bakery and---”

She grabs onto his arm. “No, no, relax. Just stay with me.”

Peeta smiles but Katniss kisses him before he can return his usual answer of ‘always’. The hot chocolate on his lips is even sweeter than whatever rich mix the Capitol served them. It’s hard to believe that train ride was over six years ago. It feels like yesterday and yet lifetimes ago at the same time.

He presses his forehead to hers. “Hey, I have some good news.”

She leans back to see his blue eyes. Waiting for him to continue.

“Delly said the farmers are going to be planting new trees for this. It will take a couple years but they’ll have a few acres dedicated to Christmas trees. So, they won’t cut anymore from the woods. That’s how 7 does it.”

Katniss looks down into her cup and shrugs. Taking trees from the forest wasn’t necessarily what irked her about it. When everyone needed the wood, it never bothered her. But there’s not as much need for firewood anymore. The new houses have been built with electric heat and stoves.

It’s frivolous. Wasteful. Like hunting for sport.

Peeta gently lifts her chin. “I thought you’d be happy to hear that.”

She sighs. “I just hope they find a use for it, when they’re done looking at a dead tree.”

The baker is busy in their kitchen. Fresh ginger cookies cooling on the rack as he whips up a rainbow of frostings.

Normally she’d be working alongside him. They’ve become quite the baking team. He jokes that she’ll be taking over the title of best baker in the house any day now.

But she hasn’t found the motivation to leave her spot on the counter today. She watches his arms flex as he twists the frosting bags. Listening to his bright voice fill her in on the town news she’s missed from staying cooped up in the house.

Peeta drops a green bag into her hands. “They’re ready!”

“Hmm?” Maybe she hadn’t been listening as closely as she thought.

“The gingerbread people.” He picks up two of the figure cookies and makes them toddle walk across the counter. “I’ve been told gumdrop buttons are very important.” One of the cookies dives into the candy bowl. “Effie says a gingerbread man without gumdrop buttons will look as sloppy as Haymitch with his half open shirts.”

The silly image earns a small smile from her. Katniss hops off the counter to join him at the decorating station he’s set up.

She draws beady eyes and a crooked smile. Pressing a line of 3 gumdrops onto its little green shirt. Peeta slides his creation into her workspace before grabbing his next blank cookie canvas.

A grinning ginger girl with a chocolate braid. The 2 gumdrops are not placed in the appropriate vertical configuration.

Katniss sets to work on a new cookie. Dressing the bread man with a vanilla apron, bright yellow hair, and sparkling blue sugar eyes.

She silently slides her new cookie over to Peeta.

“That’s a very handsome cookie.” He teases.

Katniss picks up the more anatomically correct ginger girl and makes it kiss her blonde baker cookie.

The tension in Peeta’s shoulders seems to relax before he closes the space between them.

Another popcorn kernel snaps around her needle. The tedious labor combined with Haymitch’s loud crunching grates on her every nerve. How the man can still fit anymore in his stomach after the meal they just ate is a mystery to her.

A plump roasted goose, mashed winter squash, and a drink so thick she felt like she needed to chew it. Some old recipe Peeta brewed called ‘eggnog’. Haymitch whined half the cooking time over how many eggs the recipe called for. Only six of his geese are laying in this freezing cold weather.

But as soon as he tasted it with a generous splash of rum, he said Peeta could have all the eggs he wanted this winter.

Haymitch grabs another handful of popcorn, spilling half of it across the table.

Katniss sneers at him. “Takes about a dozen of those for two to get in your mouth.”

He tosses one up into the air, the kernel lands on his chin before tumbling to the floor. “About the same number it takes before you manage to get two on that string, huh Sweetheart?”

Katniss lifts up her sparse popcorn strand. Peeta has already finished one length of string and is on his second. His gentle hands and unwavering patience make him a natural for this pointless tradition.

“At least hers exists.” Peeta gestures to the empty needle and thread next to Haymitch’s spot at the table.

“Yea, that’s something I suppose.” He tosses up another kernel which lands behind his chair.

“Do you intend to clean that up or are you trying to make our house as dirty as yours?!” Katniss chides him like the naughty child he is.

“Ah, there’s that fire.” Haymitch stands up. “Think my work is done for the evening. You can handle her from here, kid.” He pats Peeta on the shoulder before stumbling out the door and across the yard.

Katniss’ eyes shoot to Peeta. “Is that what this nonsense popcorn string is about? Some plan between you two to get me angry?”

He sets down the string and runs his hands over his face. “I don’t know about what he was trying to do, but that definitely wasn’t my plan.”

“Well then what, Peeta? Why do I need to sew popcorn??” She stabs another kernel, the needle pricking into her thumb. She winces at the sudden jab and sucks on the side of her injured finger.

Peeta scoots closer and slowly pulls her hand from her mouth. He turns it over. The intensity of his gaze at her barely visible wound defuses any fight she had left in her.

“Winter is always so hard.” He kisses her thumb before reaching out to hold her face. Behind his tired expression, she can see the stress he’s been trying to hide. Or maybe she’d been too wrapped up in her own pain to notice. “I thought some of these new customs could help. Help get through the worst of it anyway. Keeping busy with things that don’t remind us of anything. But we don’t have to do any of this. We can stick to our routines. Whatever you want.”

If the past winters have proven anything, it’s that her routines aren’t enough this time of year. Every snowfall a reminder of where her sister last stood. Beautiful, alive in the red stained snow, before her life was cut short for no reason.

She tries to think about last winter. Too many of those days lost to the darkness. Spent either in bed or catatonic in a closet. It had been one of the worst since the first one after the war. Prim should have turned 18 that year. Should have been safe.

She’s already spent more days up and about this winter, and they’re not even half way through it yet. “Okay.”

Peeta’s eyebrows knit together. “Okay?”

“It is helping. Trying new things, having something else to focus on.” Katniss picks up her incomplete popcorn string and successfully adds a kernel.

“Okay.” Peeta’s smile grows.

This is Johanna’s fault. The cold air stings her lungs as she drops down to the next branch.

Peeta’s been putting so much effort into these Christmas traditions, she decided it was her turn to plan one for him. But she’d paid so little attention to the propo that she had to call Jo for ideas.

The only one she would tell her about was some weird tradition involving mistletoe. Apparently when a couple finds themselves under the parasitic plant full of toxic berries, that signals the requirement to share a kiss.

“I wouldn’t suggest describing it like that. Way to ruin the romance, Brainless.” Johanna had scolded her when she questioned the odd choice of plant.

So here she is. Climbing down a frozen tree, green bundle in hand.

She hikes out of the woods and back home to the Village. The front door swings open before she reaches the first step.

“Welcome home Huntress, so what are we making for dinner?” Peeta greets her.

Katniss tries to hide the mistletoe behind her back. She had expected him to still be at the bakery now. “I didn’t go hunting.”

He leans to the side to peak at what she’s hiding. “No?”

She sighs, so much for making it a surprise. She holds out the plant. “It’s mistletoe.”

Peeta’s face lights up. “Wow, so you were watching.” He gives a gleeful chuckle.

She climbs up the porch, tapping the snow off her boots. “Actually, I had to call Johanna.”

“Ah. Well, thank you to you both then.” He wraps her in a warm hug.

Katniss rolls her eyes. “She’s not the one who climbed the tree.”

Peeta laughs. “Where are you going to put it?”

“Jo said it goes in a door frame.” She looks up.

He nuzzles into her neck. “I was thinking on the bedframe, but your call.”

Katniss shakes her head. She stands on her tip toes, lifting the silly plant high above them. He kisses her soft and slow. She's not sure if the kiss or the snow flurry gust sends the shiver all the way down her spine.

Peeta pulls her inside. “Hey, I have something to show you, too.” Taking her hand, he leads her to the back door.

He instructs her to close her eyes before guiding her out into the cold.

When she opens her eyes, it takes a moment for it to come into focus. There, in the corner of the yard sits a freshy planted young pine tree. The popcorn strings they meticulously crafted draped all around it. Tiny white lights sparkle among the dusting of snow.

He rubs the back of his neck, waiting to gauge her reaction. “I thought this could be our Christmas tree. So, we could decorate a live one each year.”

It’s so beautiful. The bright symbol of life standing in the snow.

“I love it." She wraps her arms around his waist. "Thank you, Peeta.”

He pulls her tight against him.

The stillness of the winter scene is only interrupted when a mockingjay lands on their tree to enjoy the popcorn between the branches.

……… _a Mockingjay in an Evergreen. ♪_


End file.
